Death Comes Upon The Heroes
by Clio Storm
Summary: When the student first entered the classroom, Severus Snape's carefully composed expression almost cracked. Those were her eyes, right there, and the face they were set in… He gripped the front of his desk as he felt the world shifting beneath his feet.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer:** Obviously Harry Potter does not belong to me. Nor do any of the characters, or any of J.K. Rowling's talent. At the moment, this fic has a relatively low rating, but this will almost certainly go up in later chapters. Also, I would like to make it clear that there will be no underage relationships in this fic - although it may seem like that's going to happen at the beginning. If the characters do begin a relationship, they will both be overage (16 where I live)._

_Oh, and just a warning - this is likely to be quite complicated. I don't want to explain it, because that would spoil the story, but don't expect a simple plot._

_I think that's all - my chapters are usually quite short, so I hope you enjoy them :) Reviews are loved!_

**Death Comes Upon The Heroes**

When the student first entered the classroom, Severus Snape's carefully composed expression almost cracked. Those were _her_ eyes, right there, and the face they were set in… He gripped the front of his desk as he felt the world shifting beneath his feet. Surely it was his imagination, he thought, because there was no way, no way on earth, that Ellen could be sitting there looking back at him.

**Chapter One**

He'd met her when he was just sixteen, struggling with the pressures of being a Slytherin at a time when the Dark Lord was gaining power. The lure of chaos was too much for him, just as it was for many of his classmates. They had died in the darkness. Only through a chance meeting, some carefully placed words, and a very… distracting Occlumency teacher had he survived.

It was simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Still too young to move out, he'd taken to sleeping out in the woods from time to time during the holidays. He had no friends to speak of, no-one to stay with. His parents barely spoke to each other, and when they did, they swore more than they actually spoke. He'd given up on them long ago. All things considered, the woods seemed the safest place for him.

There was a river running through the trees, sluggish and filthy. Mouldering willows sagged over the water's edge, observing their decaying reflections with a quiet despair. The leaves were falling prematurely this year - as the Dark Lord's power grew, nature cringed away. There were no birds, no animal sounds to disturb him. It was the closest thing to a 'happy place' he had.

That day, the sky was pale grey with dawn. He had his battered, second-hand copy of _A History of Magic_, but it failed to captivate him as it once had. Life was duller, darker, and not really worth living since he'd lost Lily.

He put the book down, wincing as the sound disturbed the silence, and stood up. He didn't know how long it had been since he'd left the house the previous evening, and his stomach was beginning to protest. Used to the hunger pangs, however, he set off on a brisk walk, scuffing up old leaves and shaking the leaden tiredness from his legs.

He almost walked past her that first time. She blended in perfectly with the trees around her, curled up in the leaf mould like a lost child. A chill came over him - for all his bravado in the presence of the other Slytherins, the killings he encountered still horrified him. This girl could've been dumped here, or even killed less than a mile from his own front door. He fell to his knees next to her, touched her face. To his intense relief, she was warm, and he saw her chest rising and falling.

Her eyes flickered open.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Snape battled through the rest of the lesson with the tenacity he usually reserved for his lessons with Potter. At least Albus had warned him that time - no-one had told him that the very next year, he'd be dealing with the exact double of the girl he'd found in the woods all those years ago.

Glancing up from his desk to the field of scratching quills, he caught a flash of grey eyes upon him, before she bowed her head to her work again. He sighed, and waved his hand at them, shooing them away. "Class dismissed."

Snape continued with his work, his brain ticking away all the while, considering all the possibilities. A relation, with a strange - unnatural - likeness? An enchantment devised by one of the scheming Slytherin grandmothers, always so determined to see him married to their daughters? Perhaps a sign of his own fatigue, an unexpected hallucination, brought on by the occasional bouts of desperate grief he still felt from time to time. Maybe he could go to sleep and she would be gone when he woke.

It was just then that he became aware that he was not alone in the room. He looked up. There she was, standing there, her face serious, a little hopeful. It really wasn't fair, he thought. His frustration came out in his voice. "Yes?" he snapped, glaring.

He was immediately angry at himself as she shrank back a little, and then frowned - she was only a first year, and it wasn't her at all. The girl gulped, and stepped forward again. "I just wanted to say thank you, Professor Snape."

"Whatever for?" he asked, baffled. She seemed surprised. "For teaching, of course!" she said, smiling a little. "I just wanted you to know that I'm really looking forward to being here, and to thank you for teaching me."

Despite himself, Snape could not prevent the corner of his mouth twitching upwards in an involuntary smile. It was just like her, really. Then he stopped himself. It wasn't her, he reminded himself. Just an unusually similar first year.

He coughed, and attempted to dislodge the strange lump that had suddenly appeared in his throat. "Well… you're very welcome, Miss…?"

"Hanfield, Sir. Ellen Hanfield."

It was as though someone had placed a large rock into his stomach. If he had not been sitting down, his knees would've buckled. As it was, some of his horror and confusion must have registered on his face, for her smile faltered a little. He hurriedly flapped his hand toward the door.

"Yes, very welcome, Miss Hanfield. Now, if you don't mind…"

He busied himself collating the papers on his desk into piles of equal size. It was work he could easily have done with his wand, but he did not want her to see his face. When he looked up again, the door was swinging shut behind her.

It was then that Severus Snape did something he had not done for many years. He made sure his room was safe from intrusion, but his head down on his newly-tidied desk and cried.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

"Ellen Hanfield." she had said, when he asked for her name. She was sitting up by that point, his coat around her shoulders. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her face covered in mud, tears and what seemed to be dried blood. Faint silvery tracks glinted on her hands if the morning sun caught them, he noticed.

She had told him her family had been attacked. Not for any particular reason, she said - they had not chosen a side in the war, which made them fair game for Death Eaters. Her home burning, she had run into the forest, running until her legs gave way beneath her. Then she had cried herself into a long and hollow sleep. She sat very carefully, as though afraid that she might suddenly dislodge herself and fall back into that tunnel of grief.

Neither of them spoke after that for a long time. He understood that she needed silence, and silence was his own preferred state. They just sat next to each other, and watched the sky brighten from a meaningless grey to a sickly pale blue.

Presently Severus stood up, offering her his hand. "You need somewhere warm." he said, by way of explanation. "My place will be safe."

It might not be, but usually his mother had crawled back into her cave of pillows by this point in the day. His father was rarely home anymore. Even if his mother was awake, it was unlikely she would care about Severus bringing a strange girl home. She didn't really care about anything anymore, least of all her son.

At Spinner's End, the air was heavy with resentment. The stink of alcohol and unwashed bodies prevailed through the street. No-one who lived here stayed away from the bottle for long. Severus, long used to the smell, ignored it, but he saw Ellen wrinkle her nose a little in distaste. He couldn't quite hold back a smirk. Lily had been much more vocal about what she thought - to the point where some would call it rude. He had just laughed.

He pushed open the front door, shifting his mind quickly away from the thought of Lily. That route never did any good. There was no light in the room, so Severus lit his wand tip with a whispered "_Lumos._" Even in the dark, he could find his way to the cupboard where the matches were kept easily, but he had tripped over his hungover mother several times before.

Thankfully, all the signs indicated she was in bed. There was little food available, but Severus did the best he could for his unexpected guest, and she thanked him profusely for the little he did. But it was clear she was exhausted, so after she had eaten everything he had given her - with much persuasion - he took her up to his room and told her to sleep again on his bed. This time, he knew, she would not be so numb as after her flight into the woods, so he stayed by her side, waiting for any sign of nightmares.

They came quickly. He did not know a lot of the names she called, although he heard his fairly frequently. The others, he guessed, were her family, her friends. The people his own 'friends' had killed.

_**Author Comment: **Three chapters is it for now! I hope, if you've read this, you've enjoyed it so far - characters will develop more, I promise. And I really, really hope Ellen isn't a Mary Sue, but if you think she is, please point it out to me. Although bear in mind you haven't seen much of her yet. She has her flaws too._

_I'm very busy with schoolwork, but I'll try to keep writing and uploading, despite my faulty internet. Thank you for reading! :)_


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